January Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees – Add Your Comments

They put on events, they readily share geocaching tricks and tips and they challenge new and seasoned geocachers with their hides. They are the January Featured Geocacher of the Month Nominees.

December 2012 Featured Geocacher of the Month, Moneydork

Now it’s your turn to help select one of them as the Featured Geocacher of the Month for January.

Write a comment at the bottom of this blog about which of these geocachers you feel should be awarded the Featured Geocacher of the Month title.

In December, Wayne, a.k.a. Moneydork was recognized for establishing himself as one of Australasian’s most prolific geocachers. His efforts to support the community as a Geocaching volunteer reviewer and good Samaritan have not gone unnoticed. He even managed to organize New Zealand’s very first Mega-Event from 3500 km (2175 miles) away. According to fellow geocachers, Moneydork’s hides and events are legendary Down Under and he never hesitates to give his all to the sport.

Here are your nominees for the January Featured Geocacher of the Month. Some testimonials have been edited for length.

Mr Bluesky writes, “On November 29th, Don, [a.k.a. Kirret] will have found a geocache every single day of the year, since November 2011. He has done this in three different countries and on two continents. This year alone he has found over 1,700 geocaches, including a grand haul of 100 on March the 27th. Don worked in Scotland in 2010 and 2011 and I got to meet him through geocaching. We immediately became firm friends. I had the pleasure of geocaching with him in Canada in July 2012 and then again on August 18th in Scotland. Don is very enthusiastic about geocaching and has, just by meeting people while out geocaching, gotten many involved in this hobby by informing them of what he was doing and how enjoyable it is. He mostly geocaches with his wife and son and is one of Guildford, England’s most prolific geocachers. He is out in all weather conditions with a smile on his face and a GPS in hand. I think his achievements this year is a remarkable feat.”

ttcm4geo writes, “If you visit Prescott, Arizona as we were one weekend, you will note something curious. Many of the geocaches you visit will have a note stating that ‘while you are in Prescott, you must find a geocache called Raven’s Labyrynth.’ So many geocacher said this that we finally decided to pursue it. The geocache itself is amazing, which I am sure took weeks to construct. Then we found out that the geocache owner has many similarly thought-out geocaches in the area. In fact, Prescott is known as ‘Ravenland.’ But, even more amazing is that if you email Dan, a.k.a. The Raven with a question, he promptly replies and tells you to call him. So we called him and got some assistance. He was very nice, and you can tell that his only goal is to help people enjoy geocaching. His geocaches are creative, well thought out and so much fun. He does all this work for people many of whom he will never meet. Therefore, I think he deserves this recognition.”

SuperGoober writes, “Tim, a.k.a. The Weasel is what geocaching is all about. He gives back so much more than he takes. He hosted the very first CITO in the Midwest: EIGA 2004 CEDAR RAPIDS CITO EVENT. He is an active member and Board Director for the Iowa Geocacher Organization and a volunteer for the Linn County Conservation. Tim has conducted and assisted in over 50 geocaching 101, 201 and 301 classes and workshops throughout the State of Iowa and abroad. His knowledge of the wilderness extends well beyond that of an average geocacher. He uses his extensive knowledge of the outdoors to help other geocachers by placing some very creative and educational geocaches. The Weasel has an impeccable sense as to what geocaching is all about. He realizes that cache maintenance is very necessary to ensure that geocaching is fun and that the geocache is there. He is just unstoppable.”

Comment below to tell us who you think should be the January Featured Geocacher of the Month. A panel of Lackeys will use your comments to help decide which geocacher is awarded the honor. Each featured Geocacher of the Month will receive an exclusive special edition featured Geocacher of the Month Geocoin, along with a Geocacher of the Month hat, a Geocacher of the Month profile icon and a certificate acknowledging their contributions, signed by two of the founders of Geocaching.com. We will be accepting comments for January’s award through Sunday, January 20th.

Those whose nominees were not recognized here are encouraged to submit their nominations again next month. If you know an outstanding geocacher you would like to nominate to be a featured Geocacher of the Month, send an email to geocacherofthemonth@groundspeak.com and include the following information:

Your name, the name of your nominee, their username

A picture of the nominee

Description (200 or more words) explaining why he or she deserves to be the Geocacher of the Month

Please inform your nominee that you’ve submitted them for the award.

Nominations for the February Geocacher of the Month must be received by Friday, February 8th.

Once we have received all of the nominations, we will choose the top candidates and post them on the blog. You will then get a chance to champion your favorite. Our goal is to involve the entire geocaching community in this process so we might learn from each other.

My vote is for the Raven. The thought, work and creativity of his caches is amazing. Dan is a great guy, and is available and eager to help. We look forward to his next cache! Dan’s caches have made Prescott (Ravenland) a geocaching destination. We recently spent a day on his caches with a cacher that came from New Zealand via Las Vegas to do “Ravenland” . He’s the man!

I am voting Weasel. Geocaching is more than placing caches. The Weasel is the guy that first comes to the mind if a lot of people when you think of a person who not only places great caches, but helps his fellow cachers out, does countless maint repairs on not only his caches, but his fellow cachers as well. Weasel has close interactions with many important organizations which has opened up Geocaching to a lot of areas. He work in conservation and education is beyond belief!

Geocaching of the month …baaahumbug how about Geocaching of the century. Anyone that has done any of his caches knows that there really is none like him. Those of us in Arizona especially Prescott are spoiled by his ingeniousness of his caches. He truly spends more time and thought on his caches then anyone I’ve ever heard of anywhere and I have friends that do this all over the country. To understand the depth of this mans devotion and genus you really should come out and try some of his for yourself. Not only does he put out the best but if you need help he will always be there to help you, if you call or text you will almost always certainly get a reply within a full minutes which is very helpful when you are stuck out somewhere doing a cache and can’t quite seem to get it.

The Raven’s geocaches are the reason my family and I geocache. A friend and her family got us started by telling us about The Raven’s caches and now we are hooked. His originality and his obvious care and passion for Geocaches is obvious in how he devises new ways and sets the bar extremely high for himself and his caches. I vote for The Raven for Geocacher of the month

The Raven,
A real nice guy dedicated to geocaching and superbly conscious of the environment. I am a volunteer park ranger with the City of Prescott Arizona and frequently meet the Raven working on a site in one of our parks. This site is gets a lot of traffic and is, at first sight merely a smart trails marker, but you geocachers who have found it already, know its wonderful and entertaining secrets. The Raven keeps this site maintained and always respects the environment around it. If all of our park visitors were as nature friendly as the Raven, I and my fellow volunteers might have to find some alternative volunteering opportunities.

The Raven …the word for those in Prescott and anyone else that has done any of his caches bring to mind excitement, longing and anticipation. Many of us find ourselves doing other caches because we like to cache however when we see a new cache come up from The Raven we are like young kids at Christmas time full of excitement, wonder at what we will find and looking at the clock at work or school anxious for it to speed up so we can go out and look for the latest by this Geocaching genus. His Labyrinth has kept myself and my friends entertained for hours. His Indiana Jones is an adventure in every sense of the word. His caches aren’t simple caches they are an adventure that takes you out of the basic world of Geocaching into a world made of challenges using your mind, your body and your very soul and allow you often to be a kid again.
The Raven undoubtedly should be Geocacher of the month.

The Weasel is an excellent choice! His enthusiasm and ingenuity are legendary. His caches are always a great challenge and leave you with a smile on your face. He’s been Iowa’s goodwill ambassador to geocaching.

I am a Volunteer Park Ranger with Prescott Parks and Rec. I have come across the Raven (Dan) a few times working on
his geocaching. All I can tell you is he loves his work he loves talking and helping out people and I think his designs are great.
Because of him i actually tried geo caching on my trip to New Zealand and Australia.

If Geocaching is about number of caches you’ve hidden then The Raven has to be up there. If Geocaching is about dedication then The Raven has that hands down as not only does he make sure that his caches are up and running at all times but if you have a question regarding finding one of his then all you need to do is text him and he will reply almost immediately with a text or will call. If Geocaching is about being inventive and imaginative then just look at some of his more “famous” and I do mean famous caches and you will see there is no other like him in the Geocaching world.
He is known throughout Arizona as the one with the Geocaches that you just “have to do”. This man doesn’t only create geocaches but creates works of art and ingenuity that makes him the “Master of Geocaching”
The Raven deserves this award because his caches bring Geocaching alive.

Boy, what can I say. I think this has kinda festered in a giant popularity contest and turned this away from what it should be, which is congratulating 3 outstanding cachers for their constant dedication to Geocaching and what it stands for. I have had the opportunity to exchange e-mails with my new friend Raven, and we both agreed 100% that this has got out of hand and more or less driving a wedge between 2 great cachers. It’s amazing how Dan and I agreed on things surrounding this situation, especially the fact that we both felt that all 3 of us nominees were no better than each other and all 3 of us should be awarded as such. We both felt that if only one of us was declaired a “winner”, then 2 other equally deserving people will be done a diservice. The number of comments/logs supporting all of us speaks for itself. To have recieved over 300 more votes over any other month is all the proof that I need that we can’t just have 1 “winner”. I’m sure I can probably speak for Dan when I hope that Groundspeak notices this voting feat and does the right thing and award multiple winners this month. It has been truely an honor to e-mail and get to know my fellow nominees on a personal level and we each have a total respect for one another.
Thanks!
Tim Stewart “The Weasel”

So the first Geocache we did was a Raven’s called Under the Lichen when I was home from College. It got me addicted, so addicted that we were on our way to the airport to catch my plane to head back to Alaska where I was going to college at the time and I just had to stop one last time to try to find it, after a quick call to Dan which he replied to us immediately we got a clue and I found it. Yes his Geocaches are that addictive and that was just the start. His Geocache “Going Slightly Mad” did just that, had me going slightly mad but enthralled for many hours until I was able to solve it and I learned some interesting facts. Other Geocaches have you looking for hidden messages and solving puzzles all while exploring and appreciating the local area. Every time I would come home from college my first thing to do was to see what Geocaches Dan had come up with and do them. Then I went to England for a year with no chance to get home to Prescott and I was having withdrawal reading about Geocaches that Dan was putting out. I couldn’t wait to get home so I could once again enjoy his wonderful caches. When I got home I headed out to his latest and greatest and I do mean that in every sense of the word, it is fantastic; “The Labyrinth” which is not only a Geocache but a creation of ingenuity and art. I can not give this Geocache enough accolades and I am very proud to say that I am one of only two people that have actually managed to finish the entire thing, just to give you an idea of how much thought and effort goes into these; hundreds have tried it and hundreds go back again and again, including those of us who have already beaten it. This is one man who we are proud to have in our area and I’m quite confident that should he ever leave, he would have a following right behind him.

My vote without a doubt goes to Dan aka The Raven from Ravenland Arizona (hmmm wonder if they will soon change the name of the town from Prescott Arizona to The Ravenland Arizona, wouldn’t doubt it 😉 )

Boy, what can I say. I think this has kinda festered in a giant popularity contest and turned this away from what it should be, which is congratulating 3 outstanding cachers for their constant dedication to Geocaching and what it stands for. I have had the opportunity to exchange e-mails with my new friend Weasel, and we both agreed 100% that this has got out of hand and more or less driving a wedge between 2 great cachers. It’s amazing how Tim and I agreed on things surrounding this situation, especially the fact that we both felt that all 3 of us nominees were no better than each other and all 3 of us should be awarded as such. We both felt that if only one of us was declaired a “winner”, then 2 other equally deserving people will be done a diservice. The number of comments/logs supporting all of us speaks for itself. To have recieved over 300 more votes over any other month is all the proof that I need that we can’t just have 1 “winner”. I’m sure I can probably speak for Tim when I hope that Groundspeak notices this voting feat and does the right thing and award multiple winners this month. It has been truely an honor to e-mail and get to know my fellow nominees on a personal level and we each have a total respect for one another.
Thanks!
Daniel Hunt “The Raven”

Well, I had a person in mind I was going to vote for, but I am going to post a note instead. I think it super cool that The Weasel and The Raven are combining efforts to try and get Groundspeak to award multiple winners. Not only that, but it speaks loudly for both of them that even though the vast majority of the votes are for them, they are also including Kirret! Bravo guys , this is what Geocaher’S of the Month represent! I hope that Groundspeak sees this and does he right thing, and I encourage everybody to “note” instead of “vote” for multiple winners!

I voted for Dan but I think this is the best idea. After all the purpose of Geocaching and Groundspeak if I understand correctly is to promote friendship, creativity and a sense of community. By awarding a triple tie it would show that this indeed is about those three things not about who has the most facebook friends or friends with large families that can log on and and vote.

I am in total agreement that Groundspeak should look at this voting with an open mind and some out of the box thinking. There shouldn’t be a winner and a looser when thinks are this close. My new vote is for multiple winners!!!

I voted for Dan but I think the three way tie is the best idea. After all the purpose of Geocaching and Groundspeak if I understand correctly is to promote friendship, creativity and a sense of community. By awarding a triple tie it would show that this indeed is about those three things not about who has the most facebook friends or friends with large families that can log on and and vote.